A star, a writer and a director you'd never think would make a mainstream family comedy together have made one of the funniest mainstream family comedies of recent times.

The star is Jack Black, a funny man who finally has the comic vehicle he deserves.

The writer is Mike White, whose previous writing credits include the 2001 black comedy The Good Girl, and who puts in a great performance of his own as Black's henpecked flatmate.

And the director, bizarrely enough, is indie icon Richard "Slacker" Linklater, who, rather like Penelope "The Decline of Western Civilization" Spheeris directing Wayne's World, gives this very Hollywood film some counter-culture credibility.

The plot is basic but clever: Black, as Dewey Finn, a broke and frustrated wannabe rock star, blags his way into a teaching job at a posh private school.

Originally, he intends to sit around, do nothing and collect his pay check at the end of the term. When he realizes that the kids are talented musicians, however, he decides to use them to live out his own rock 'n' roll dreams.

Along the way, lessons are learned and tears are shed, but despite the formulaic approach the result is as funny a movie as you're likely to see this year.